Communication and collaboration in the modern era for Business (Slack / Microsoft teams)

In today's modern work environment, the influence of technology on productivity is evident. The future is

collaborative, and that's how communication platforms are shaping the way we work. Companies that fail to leverage the best possible tools to collaborate better are likely to fall behind their competition. It is time to consider how productivity tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack can change your business. View from a broad survey of 1,200 IT decision-makers (ITDM) and 3,000 users shows the impact and significance of collaboration platforms in the new workplace. But flexible workplace doesn't support old techniques requiring advanced technology tools that allow fast, easy, and consistent collaboration. Because hybrid and flexible workplaces are what new businesses need for the future, it is time for more companies to embrace the latest collaboration platforms.

Wakefield Research surveyed thousands of users and IT decision-makers (ITDMs) who use collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams for work to get the backdated perspective of collaboration platforms over the past year and to look at the trends that will define the future of these platforms. The data clearly shows a trend towards collaboration platforms as the new standard, decreasing the dependency on email and meetings and switching business communication into something faster and more user-friendly.

Even though most companies had not used a collaboration platform before the pandemic, collaboration platforms quickly replaced traditional transmission. 78% of ITDMs now say they will continue to use Slack and other media even when regular work routines come. Professionals prefer email and meetings over other collaboration platforms. At this moment, if they are forced to choose their primary collaboration platform, more than one-third of business users would give up their work email rather than Slack/Microsoft Teams or other collaboration platforms, and 95% of Employees prefer Slack to put their say in their company's tech stack where 37% of users are frustrated that they are not included in the discussion about the company's selection of software tools. Mainly, this is important for the collaboration platforms that act as a company's online office. Slack prioritized over more than 2 in 5 IT decision-makers (41%) who say that employee support is part of their decision to select. With Microsoft Teams, all team members are on the same page, and everybody knows the status of a discussion/project/task to keep the productivity flowing. Teams is a modern chat-based collaboration tool that is a digital hub for teamwork. It has become a favorite all around the world due to its ability to provide app integrations.

With the sudden shift to remote work in March 2020, collaboration platforms are crucial to the new way of working. Although the change was unexpected, 100% of Slack users want to keep using it even after the pandemic to build alignment across teams and increase individual productivity. With this shift to hybrid workplaces, it's clear that collaboration platforms will play an increasingly important role in the future of business communication. It is just the beginning to see the full possibility of the tools. Even though a fast shift, users and ITDMs alike are seeing a lot of success with this new way of communicating.

Therefore, communication and collaboration platforms are here to stay forever. Traditional communication platforms are becoming outdated. 79% of users say their communication and collaboration platform is essential to their work. As business communication platforms rise in popularity, the trends show that traditional communication methods are losing popularity. As email is losing its priority as the default business communication tool, ITDMs believe email will be replaced as the primary business communication tool by 2024. As well as, employees prefer Slack over email. The email has been around for nearly 50 years, the default communication tool for work purposes. At a virtual event, Slack's co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield has said, "There's no advantage to supplanting email completely." Slack seems to have an email beat when it comes to productivity, encourage a healthy culture in teams, and preventing feelings of isolation. 95% of Slack users say they would instead connect with their team via Slack than a meeting video call.

A report shows that email takes up more than 3 hours a day since you have to keep track of your inbox, sort through junk mail, scroll through long reply-all threads before deciding to reply. A study found that users save an average of 90 minutes a day by using Slack instead of email, which adds up to 7.5 hours from Monday to Friday, which means Slack is giving users back almost an entire day every week. Slack channels make it duck soup for individuals and groups to handle projects and problems quickly without losing any context or clarity, significantly enhancing productivity. The fun part is, Teams let users generate customized memes, do not have to rely on third-party meme generators. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams is going to beat Slack with its appealing properties. Such as real-time messaging and communication, which is cost-friendly, easier scheduling making, generous chat place for companies, security & compliance, customized workspace with full integration of Office 365 etc.

Social connectivity efficiency isn't all it takes for a productive hybrid office to stay engaged, and employees also need to stay connected. Email is basically an official way; the default one-on-one conversations make it difficult to build human connections with remote colleagues, increasing a sense of isolation. Slack breaks down communication barriers. Slack binds people by offering an informal communication tool and a digital work environment where teams can collaborate. 80% of Slack users said they would be more relaxed to send a GIF and MEMEs on a Slack channel and wouldn't on a group email to interact with others. The formal behavior of email is a big obstacle to the easy-going conversations that build relationships. Even connecting with a direct manager can be difficult for employees whose interactions are limited to email and occasional meetings and growing any relationship with higher-ups. Slack makes it straightforward to communicate and collaborate with decision-makers and leaders, both inside the company and out. With Teams, everyone can stay in a consistent circle in the organization as it allows real-time communication. Moreover, teams can be supervised over private discussions in threaded conversations and texting functionality which is the core feature in Teams designed to improve collaboration and boost productivity. No more zigzag when you can chat in real-time. You can chat in private with an individual or have conversations as a team discussion. You can mention people by their user name to point out when you want specific team members to see particular messages in a channel. Teams keep everything archived; if anyone joins the group, conversations can quickly get up to date. Teams ensure that every team member is updated in real-time, which is a lot cheaper than other similar collaborative platforms.

Employees play a vital role in purchasing software tools or making decisions for the business; if they do not feel comfortable using the tool, it will be a waste of investment. Additionally, administrators and users may have very different ideas about technologies' role and what's most important in an organization. 37% of the workforce are already frustrated that they are not included in conversations about the company's selection of software tools; To create a pleasant and convenient workplace, CEOs need to listen to the people the decisions will actually influence. With the help of Slack/Teams, ITDMs are giving more power to employees for companys' productivity purposes. 73% of IT decision-makers who already use Teams also recommend Slack to meet employees' needs.

When the pandemic hit, companies struggled to adopt a collaboration platform, and Slack and Microsoft Teams were the two major prospects. Moreover, Slack makes it flexible to build custom solutions and manage thousands of other tools, including Office 365 and SharePoint. Take the Teams applications for an instance; it may be fascinating to choose Microsoft Teams if you are already using Office 365 and SharePoint. Microsoft Office 365 is a collaborative application of cloud-based productivity to decision-makers which combines Microsofts' existing online applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Sway, Access, Skype and SharePoint into a cloud service. SharePoint was launched in 2001, a web-based collaborative platform mainly sold as a document management and storage system. Still, the product is highly configurable, and its usage varies substantially among organizations. In that manner, if you are starting a startup or already managing an organization, you can build up bonding with your employees through the best communication and collaboration platforms for your business.

What is Microsoft Teams, and why should your company use it? Teams provides all the files and information you need at your fingertips. The benefits of Microsoft Teams is that it is a digital communication and collaboration platform that makes teamwork flexible, which is built to manage conversations, data, and applications easily. It is a highly user-friendly platform that provides an alternative to email communication that can stop employees from wasting their valuable time searching for data and make collaboration effective by giving staff members instant access to work data efficiently through Teams. Moreover, Teams provides a search facility and access to Planner, OneNote, and SharePoint so that employees find everything they need in a couple of seconds. When you gain the innovation potential, your organization can open more doors to innovation and build a reputation in the market by delivering better products to improve customer experiences.

Nonetheless, Microsoft Teams doesn't have an advance cost as it is a part of Office 365's monthly subscription, which means Teams will never be outdated. Teams have professional-level security features, including Single Sign-On (SSO) on Active Directory (AD) and multi-factor authentication (MFA), which integrates with Office 365 Security Compliance Center. The Cloud-based system includes the Microsoft 365 subscription. It has mobile device management (MDM) capabilities that allow you to manage and control the mobile devices and workforce access to your organization's data and protect the corporate data stored and shared via mobile devices. Teams is a rich-functioning solution on multiple devices. Therefore, an organization can continue collaborating on the go without experiencing any speed breakers or data security concerns since Teams is joint with the Outlook calendar and Google Calendar, which makes setting an appointment a lot easier, quicker, and more accurate. No need to send individual invites to everyone as it can be accomplished via one channel.

These apps have proven their effectiveness at all in one solution for seamless chats between users for communication, group-file sharing and collaboration in a digital workplace. Slack Vs. Microsoft Teams; which one should you use? Although Slack and Teams are similar in functionality, there are some critical differences between the two platforms. The most considerable difference between the two apps is that Slack is easier to set up and administrate. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams setup is more complicated, but it offers excellent integrations with Office 365 applications and is designed for a larger organization. No longer you have to imagine a world where collaboration and communication in virtual space feel unusual. The Teams and Slack workplan will continue to bring new functionality lighting up regularly. Establishing a change cycle within your organization will ensure you are ready to manage collaboration and communication among workforces to maximize output value. Despite the size of your business, you can collectively achieve more with Teams and/or Slack.